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  3. First it was metals, now it is the companies that mine them. In May prices for copper, nickel and other metals rose to record le

First it was metals, now it is the companies that mine them. In May prices for copper, nickel and other metals rose to record le

admin2011-02-11  45
问题   First it was metals, now it is the companies that mine them. In May prices for copper, nickel and other metals rose to record levels, although they have since fallen a bit. Now three mining firms are proposing the most expensive merger in the industry’s history. The $ 40 billion deal, in which an American company, Phelps Dodge, plans to take over two Canadian ones, Inco and Faleonbridge, would create the world’s biggest producer of nickel, the number two in copper, and the fifth-ranked mining firm overall. The records may not stop there:two other mining firms, Xstrata and Teck Cominco, had previously bid for Falconbridge and Inco respectively, and could make further offers.
  Soaring commodities prices have left mining firms flush with cash and keen to expand. One Way would be to search for more metal in the ground, instead of on the stockmarket. But organic growth is expensive at the moment; as firms rush to increase their output to take advantage of high prices, every conceivable input, from engineers to mining trucks’ huge tyres, is in desperately short supply. Developing new mines is also slow. Mining executives worry that projects that get the go ahead when prices are high will not look so attractive when the next slump comes.
  That could be true of the proposed merger too, of course. Phelps Dodge offered a premium of 23% over the price of Inco’s shares and 12% over Falconbridge’s. Those shares, in turn, have been rising for several years along with the firms’ wares--nickel, for the most part, at Inco, and nickel and copper at Falconbridge.
  The bosses of the firms insist that the mark-up is justified, for several reasons. For one thing, they reckon they can squeeze savings of $ 900m a year out of the combined entity by 2009, by sharing equipment and personnel among adjacent mines, for example, and pooling their marketing staff. More importantly, they argue that the size and diversity of the new company will make it less vulnerable to mining’s painful cycles, and so more attractive to investors.
  The biggest and most diversified mining companies, such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, do boast higher share valuations. They produce everything from aluminium to zircon, and so are less susceptible to flutuations in the price of any particular metal. By the same logic, the more mines a firm is running or developing, and the more countries it operates in, the less risk each individual project poses to profits.
  The merged trio will certainly have a broader geographical spread, with mines in five continents. But its main projects, in stable places like the United States, Canada and Chile, never seemed that risky in the first place. Furthermore, despite having sidelines in cobalt and molybdenum, the new firm’s fortunes will depend chiefly on the price of copper and nickel--two of most volatile metals of late.
  Some analysts mutter that Phelps Dodge embarked on the merger chiefly to save itself from being taken over. Investors seem to share their doubts: Phelps Dodge’s shares fell by 8% after it announced the deal, despite a simultaneous pledge to spend $ 5 billion on a share buy-back scheme once the merger is concluded.
  On the other hand, the price of nickel and copper jumped on the news. Traders seem to have assumed that the companies would have contemplated such an expensive deal only if they thought that metals would remain in short supply for some time. The more money that mining firms spend buying one another, rather than exploring for and developing new mines, the likelier that is.  
Which of the following might be TRUE of the merged company?
选项 A、It can offer more work opportunities.
B、It can produce various kinds of metals.
C、It is the biggest producer of gold and silver.
D、It will bring huge profits to the investors.
答案B
解析 细节题。按照试题顺序及选项内容定位至第四段。该段解释了三家公司老总认为这次高价收购完全合情合理的原因，即合并后的公司可能会有什么前景。第二句提到“通过设备和人力资源共享(如整合销售人员)，可以为联合后的新公司到2009年每年可节省9亿美元成本”，这里提到的是优化人力资源，并未涉及增加工作岗位的内容，排除[A] 末句指出：尤为重要的是，他们认为新公司的规模和产品多样性将有利于公司免受周期性矿业周期阵痛带来的冲击，因而对投资者就更具吸引力。[B]是对产品多样性的解释，符合文意，故为答案。本句中说的是投资者想到合并的好处，可能愿意投资，但并没有说公司可能获利巨大，排除[D] 这里没有提到合并后公司金银的产量如何，排除[C]
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